1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a paper feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus including the paper feeding apparatus, and more particularly, to a paper feeding apparatus for preventing multi-feeding and an image forming apparatus including the paper feeding apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses form an image on a recording medium. Examples thereof include printers, copy machines, facsimile machines, and all-in-one devices implemented by combining functions of a printer, a copy machine, and a facsimile machine. Such image forming apparatuses include a paper feeding apparatus for picking up recording media accommodated in a cassette on a sheet by sheet basis and feeding the recording media to a printing device.
In the paper feeding apparatus, due to static electricity occurring between recording media or a change in a frictional force between the recording media and a pickup roller, multi-feeding whereby two or more recording media are fed at the same time may occur. This multi-feeding may cause a jam, that is, a sheet of paper, namely, a recording medium, is caught inside a main body of the paper feeding apparatus.
Various methods for preventing the multi-feeding occurring in the paper feeding apparatus have been tried, and one of the various methods is a retard roller-based method. In the retard roller-based method, a forward roller for transferring recording media into a main body is disposed in an upper side of a transfer path through which the recording media are transferred, and a retard roller by which a rotation force is applied in a direction opposite to a transfer direction of the transfer path is disposed in a lower side of the transfer path, and thus, multi-feeding whereby two or more recording media are fed at the same time into the main body is prevented.